Can strength training alone help you lose fat?

Short answer

Yes. Strength training alone cut about 0.55 kg of body fat, but body weight barely moved and it was slower than cardio. Paired with eating less, it saved nearly half of the muscle that would have been lost.

Can strength training alone help you lose fat?
'More muscle → more calories burned → fat loss' — does this formula hold?
Some say more muscle burns more calories even at rest, so the fat melts off. That is why many people skip cardio and only lift. We checked how much strength training actually cuts body fat and body weight.
Body fat did drop
58 studies: body fat down 1.46 points, fat down 0.55 kg
An analysis that pooled 58 studies comparing strength training with no exercise found body fat percentage fell 1.46 points more, and fat 0.55 kg more, in the lifting groups. That is like going from 25% body fat to about 23.5%. Belly (visceral) fat also went down.
But body weight barely moved
84 trials: strength training was the only type with no clear weight loss
An analysis of 84 trials with 4,836 people found cardio, strength training, the two combined, and intervals all cut body fat. But strength training was the only one that did not clearly reduce body weight. In a trial of 119 people over 8 months, lifters also gained more lean mass (muscle and everything except fat).
Calories burned at rest rose a little
About 96 kcal a day
An analysis of 18 studies found that strength training raised the calories people burn at rest by about 96 kcal a day. Cardio alone did not raise it. Even over a month that adds up to about 2,880 kcal, not enough on its own to make a big dent in body fat.
Compared with cardio, it was slower
Over 10+ weeks, cardio cut 1.06 kg more fat
An analysis of 36 trials with 1,564 people found that in programs longer than 10 weeks, cardio cut 1.82 kg more body weight and 1.06 kg more fat than strength training. In return, strength training kept 0.88 kg more lean mass. In studies that matched the amount of work, there was no difference.
It shines when you eat less
It prevented nearly half of the muscle loss
A 2026 analysis of 34 trials with 1,455 people found that adding exercise to eating less kept 0.87 kg more lean mass, preventing 45.7% of the loss. Strength training kept 0.83 kg more, and mixing strength and cardio kept 1.20 kg more.
Bottom line: it works, but slowly on its own
Lifting keeps muscle; diet and cardio take off the fat
Strength training alone cut body fat, but weight changed little and it was slower than cardio. To lose fat, eating less, lifting to keep your muscle, and adding cardio to burn more works.